Out for a rip!One of our favourite things to do to blow off a little steam is to burn around in the dinghy. Is it sad that we rarely ever achieve such exhilarating speeds while under way?
 

By: Jamie Chase

We are Jamie, Dina, Aria, and Gabrielle.  I (Jamie) am a full time, professional firefighter in the city of Kamloops, British Columbia.  My wife Dina, is a full-time high school teacher and photographer.  Our daughters Aria and Gabrielle are in the last year (Aria) or two (Gabrielle) of elementary school.  Between us, our interests have spanned from music and dance, to just about every sport out there (except hockey… despite being proud Canadians, not one of us seems to have an affinity to hockey beyond casually interested observers during the playoffs and Olympics… sorry Canada!).  Dina’s great passion has been photography for many years now.  My obsessions have ranged over the years from skydiving to mountain biking, from whitewater kayaking to scuba diving; until that fateful day when I found a new obsession that has altered the arc of our lives a little.

In the spring of 2012, we visited Victoria, BC for a few days on a “staycation” for the Victoria Day Long Weekend.  Sailing was an activity that I had always been curious about, but had never actively tried.  A series of events in our lives (more on that later under “Why?”…) had compelled me to “get on with it”, so I booked the four of us on a four-hour sailing charter aboard a skippered sailboat out of Oak Bay, BC; just to try it out.  At the time, both daughters were pre-schoolers; despite (or perhaps because of!) light winds out on the water, all four of us had a wonderful cruise.  I, in particular, was hooked.

Being out on the sea filled me with joy, watching my family enjoy themselves exponentially increased my happiness.  I was fascinated by the magic of a boat being propelled silently through the water, using only the energy moving through the air around us.  “This could be the one sport that appeals to me, that we can all do together as a family!”, I thought to myself.

And so it began.  Now, seven years later, we are on our third family boat- each getting progressively bigger, more capable, and located further away from Kamloops, than the last.  The first, “Boomer” was a 1962 New Horizons 26′ that barely managed to stay afloat on the usually docile waters of Shuswap Lake.  Late in the summer of 2013, “Mirage” a 1979 Dufour 31′ entered our lives, she became a fixture of our summers for the next five years.  Mirage was moored in the Vancouver area, and in Pender Harbour on BC’s Sunshine Coast.

Leaving SummerA tranquil harbour in British Columbia's Gulf Islands.

Our current boat, “Merdeka” is a 1999 Celestial 50′ that we purchased in Annapolis, Maryland.  She is waiting for us at Spring Cove Marina, in Solomon’s Island, Maryland; getting ready for our grand adventure next year.

So here we are, slightly more than seven years have passed since that fateful afternoon in Victoria.  As a family, we have gone from bobbing around in the sunshine for a few hours at a time on Shuswap Lake, to sailing and exploring the Pacific Northwest coast from as far south as Seattle, Washington; to as far north as Johnstone Strait on the BC Coast.  Mirage was our home for weeks at a time as we explored tiny coves and anchorages, hiked forested mountain tops, fished, whale watched, and pounded our way through some nasty sea conditions as we gained experiences- and experience.  In my quest to gain more sea miles and knowledge, I have also sailed (with crews other than my family) around the “outside” of Vancouver Island- my first exposure to the open ocean, sailing far from the sight of land, and my first taste of what days of seasickness are like.  From there, I went on to crew on a few longer-distance sailing races, culminating in a 16-day epic from Victoria, BC (where it all began!) to Lahaina, Maui in the Hawaiian Islands; a true offshore adventure halfway across the northern half of the Pacific Ocean.  In 2016, I was fortunate enough to get to sail on a passage from Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands; with the legendary John Kretschmer.  Now I find myself owning a boat located in the very same marina where I departed for that trip, preparing to cross oceans on our own boat.

Seven years is a record for me- seven years of a passion for a sport/activity/way of life, that has not waned.  I feel like I’m just getting started with sailing,…  in fact, that start line is still waiting ahead, at the end of the school year in June 2020…

See some inside photos of Merdeka here:  https://tinyurl.com/wmcoysn

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